FOXBORO — For all the talk of Brady vs. Manning, this game was more about Ridley, Vereen, Bolden and Woodhead.

For the second straight game, the New England Patriots amassed over 200 yards on the ground, tallying 251 against a stout Denver Broncos run defense and spoiling Peyton Manning's return to Foxboro, 31-21. It's the first time the Pats have put together back-to-back 200-yard games since 1978, and the 498 yards they've totaled in those two games is also the most in 34 years as well.

What's made the New England run game so effective as of late? For one, they've stocked the backfield with young, fresh legs instead of going the usual "dependable veteran" route. They're continuing to take a chance on second-year guys like Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen and rookie Brandon Bolden, with 27-year-old Danny Woodhead serving as the elder statesman.

But the other reason is that, when you can boast a passing attack with a reputation like that of the Patriots, teams worry more about Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Wes Welker than they do the New England stable of running backs.

"We're getting a lot of nickel defense," Brady explained. "When they put little guys out there, we have to take advantage of it. I think we're playing definitely a more physical style and controlling the tempo of the game by running the football. We have to keep doing it."

Ridley led the way with a career-high 151 yards on 28 carries and a touchdown, marking the second straight game in which he topped the century mark and his third 100-plus-yards game of the season. Bolden added 54 yards and Woodhead chipped in 47, as the Pats ran the ball 54 times. Even Vereen, who has battled a lingering foot injury, and Brady himself managed to run into the end zone for a touchdown apiece.

The Patriots scored seven rushing touchdowns in the past two games, the most in a two-game span going back to "» yep, you guessed it, 1978.

Following the game, the players all spoke about the need to have balance on offense, hence the focus on the running game. But in this contest, the Pats ran the ball 55 times compared to just 31 pass attempts by Brady. Ridley for one wouldn't say whether or not it was part of the game plan to run so much, or just a product of what the Broncos were giving the Patriots.

"We want to be balanced, I can tell you that," Ridley said. "We just try to be balanced right now. When Tom is back there, who isn't looking at Tom? Our job is easy, just run the football and be the athletes that we are."

The Patriots haven't had 50 carries in a game since 2005, when "Clock-Killin'" Corey Dillon was coming out of the New England backfield. Even then, they did it just once in 2005 and once in 2004. Before that, you've got to go all the way back to the Robert Edwards era of 1998.

Belichick was asked after the game if the 2012 running game is starting to resemble the effective ground attack of the Dillon era, but he disputed that notion.

That's true, but it's also proving to be the same level of effectiveness, and it's serving up similar effects on the offense overall.

"It takes a lot of pressure off Brady," Ridley said. "People key on him and our running back group has to take the pressure off of him so he can be the quarterback that he can be. If they're sitting back there staring Brady in the face every play — we can't be a one-dimensional offense."

What makes this performance such a surprise is that it came against a team that was holding off the run rather well. Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels must have seen some sort of fatal flaw because, as good as we've seen the Patriots' run defense be so far this season, the Broncos have been right there along with them.

Both teams entered the game in the NFL's upper echelon of run defenses. The Broncos were allowing an average of 87.5 yards per game on the ground, while the Pats were letting up just 85.2. Each was only allowing an average of 3.4 yards per carry, and Denver had allowed only one touchdown on the ground through the first four games of the season.

Yet the Patriots were able to get 4.5 yards per carry against the Broncos, with three rushing scores. Ridley, who led the way with 28 carries, boasted a 5.4 yard per carry average. And Woodhead, who carried the ball seven times, averaged 6.7 yards.

Of course, his stats were bolstered by a rare run on third-and-17 in the middle of the third quarter. Woodhead cut up the left side and ran for 19 yards, keeping alive a drive that ended in Brady's 1-yard sneak for his touchdown that made it 24-7 New England following the extra point (and a sneak, by the way, that the entire world knew was coming, yet still couldn't be stopped).

Brady said that Woodhead's run was one of the key plays of the game.

"The call came in and (McDaniels) said, 'I think we can get this,'" Brady said. "They were in a pretty light personnel grouping and (we) handed it off to Woody and he found the crease. Once he gets going, he's got some blockers ahead of him, he's tough to bring down. ... It ended up being a touchdown drive, too, and really propelled us there in the fourth quarter."

Denver cornerback Champ Bailey said the Patriots pretty much came at them the way they had expected, and that the rushing attack was something the Broncos had game-planned for all week.

"It wasn't any surprises," Bailey said. "They just hit us in the mouth and we didn't get back on it."

"We like to use the phrase, 'Bend but don't break.' We bent too much today," Denver linebacker Joe Mays said.

If the Patriots can continue to display the same amount of balance and flex their collective muscle on the ground, they're going to force a lot of defenses around the league to bend beyond all comfort in the coming weeks. But even if other teams start to figure it out and key in on the Patriot backs "» well, they've still got a pretty darn good aerial attack to fall back on, too.

Tim Weisberg covers the New England Patriots for The Standard-Times. Contact him at timweisberg@hotmail.com